extraordinary%20encounters

Imaginal beings
University of Connecticut psychologist Kenneth
Ring theorizes that an “imaginal realm”
exists somewhere between reality and fantasy.
In this “third kingdom,” entered through
(Ring’s italics) “certain altered states of con -
sciousness that have the effect of undermining
ordinary perception and conceptual thinking”
(Ring, 1992), one encounters magical yet
semireal entities such as UFO beings, angels,
and various otherworldly intelligences. Ring’s
imaginal realm is much like the “interdimensional
mind” of another parapsychological
theorist, Michael Grosso.
To test certain aspects of the hypothesis,
Ring and a colleague, Christopher J. Ro s i n g ,
conducted extensive psychological testing of
s e veral groups. They found that persons who
re p o rt UFO-abduction experiences and those
who have undergone near-death experiences
are psychologically indistinguishable. Though
not fantasy-prone in the clinical sense, they
h a ve felt a connection with nonord i n a ry re a lities
since childhood. Mo re ove r, those childhoods
we re troubled with episodes of abuse,
trauma, or serious illness. Because of these
difficulties, these individuals have deve l o p e d
a “d i s s o c i a t i ve response style as a means of
p s ychological defense.” This causes them to be
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so focused on their internal state that their
consciousness has changed in radical ways.
This expanded consciousness allows them to
enter the imaginal realm, there to meet ext
r a o rd i n a ry beings and undergo positive life
c h a n g e s .
UFO abductees and near-death experients,
in Ring’s view, are prophets—modern
shamans—who are picking up coded messages
from the otherworld. Abductees see
“small, gray, sickly looking” aliens whose
heads are too big for their bodies. They look,
in other words, like starving children. Ring
reads this to mean, “The future of the human
race—symbolized by the archetype of the
child—is menaced as never before.” Our
planet is experiencing a “near-death crisis,”
and we need to listen to what these “extraordinary
experiencers” are telling us. They are
leading us to a “cosmic-centered view of our
place in creation, a myth that has the power to
ignite the fires of a worldwide planetary regeneration
and thus to save us from the icy
blasts of Thanatos’s nuclear winter.”
See Also: Psychoterrestrials
Further Reading
Ring, Kenneth, 1992. The Omega Project: Ne a r - De a t h
Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large.
New Yo rk: William Mo r row and Company.